Edmund I

of England, king and martyr, succeeded in 855, when but fifteen years of age, to his father Offa, king of the East Angles. Edmund reigned in meekness, and his whole life was a preparation for martyrdom. About 870 the heathen Danes invaded the kingdom, and, after violating the nuns, killing the priests, and laying waste the country, made him a prisoner. Unwilling to offend God by submitting to the terms of his captors, he was tortured, and finally beheaded (870). In 1122 his anniversary was placed among the English holidays, and the kings of England took him for patron. See his Life by Abbo, and another by John Lydgate. — Herzog, Real- Encyklop. 3:4648.